Why Everybody Now Wants a Piece of the Tours and Activities Sector
Photo Credit: Companies that arrange tours and activities, like this one at Trevi Fountain in Rome, are been on a tear recently through fundraising and acquisition deals. Flickr / Lorenzoclick
Skift Take
Large travel corporations can't seem to get enough of the tours and activities space. It's one to watch as the year unfolds. Deals can be a great way to get a foot in the door, but don't forget to make sure there is a strategic fit — and, of course, that the price is right.
Travel's tours and activities segment has been on quite a ride lately, attracting new suitors looking to invest or to snap up companies outright.
Two back-to-back acquisitions shook up the space last week as Booking Holdings acquired FareHarbor and the very next day TripAdvisor purchased Bokun. This follows a slate of deals such as Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s purchase of SideStory, the sale of Hotelbeds’ destination management unit to TUI, and Marriott's investment in PlacePass.
It’s not just M&A either; the hits have been coming fast on the venture capital side as well with tours and activities startups raising at least $80 million so far this year. That builds off of 2017 when GetYourGuide raised $75 million and Klook raised $60 million in a tight contest to close the largest VC deal in the history of tours and activities.
So what’s going on in highly-fragmented tours and activities to create all this activity? Skift Research analyzed the space using proprietary insight
